Personal contact network

ABSTRACT

A method of forming unique, private, personal, virtual social networks on a social network system that includes a database storing data relating to corresponding user entities. The method includes: a first user entity sending an invitation to a second user entity, recording in the database the second user entity as a direct contact of the first user entity and determining that third user entities, directly connected to the second user entity, are indirect contacts. A unique, personal, social network formed from direct and indirect contacts is thereby created for each user entity. Each user entity is able to control privacy of its data with respect to other user entities depending on the connection factor to that other entity and/or that other entity&#39;s attributes. Each user entity is able to take the role of provider or participant in applications where the provider provides an item or service to the participant.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present patent application is a continuation of prior PCT PatentApplication No. PCT/NZ/02/00199 filed on Sep. 30, 2002, which claimspriority from New Zealand Patent Application No. 514368 filed on Sep.30, 2001, and New Zealand Patent Application No. 518624 filed on Apr.29, 2002, all of which are incorporated herein by reference in theirentirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates generally to a database of recordscompiled from entities with mutual common links and personal andbusiness services based upon these records.

BACKGROUND ART

The interconnectivity of individuals and organisations has increasedexponentially in recent times with advent of various telecommunicationmeans, including the Internet.

The Internet has connected the world with literally billions ofconnected nodes (or users) representing entities of various types,—people, organisations, computers, and other devices. Many solutionssuch as the world wide web, online bulletin boards, email, onlineinstant messaging, and peer-to-peer solutions allow direct contactbetween any number of these nodes. The very success of this inter-nodeconnectivity/accessibility has however lead to further problems where anode/entity would prefer to control its ‘visibility’ and accessibilityto a subset of the potential world-wide internet community, for anynumber of reasons, e.g. discretion, trust, association, preference,improving the quality and relevance of information and so forth.

Existing means of addressing this problem include specificimplementation web-sites configurations. These typically require secureaccess using authentication, with an associated increase in costs,maintenance, administration and lack of flexibility. Specific emailsand/or direct telephone contact is often employed, though these requiretime and effort to implement.

Virtual Private Networks, or Intranets provide companies with securenetworks on which only their employees and/or clients and partners canutilise, though again, at a high cost.

There is therefore a need for a system where nodes/entities can stillinteract with a wide range of implementations and other nodes/entitiesvia any appropriate communication methods, whilst providing control overthe distribution of information flow between the nodes and also thedegree of ‘visibility’ of the node/entity, i.e. the degree to whichinformation flow and/or the interconnection between nodes in a user'sunique private personal network is discernable to other nodes.

Incentives to restrict the distribution and flow of information within anetwork include obtaining some form of filtering of irrelevant, useless,unwanted, offensive, intrusive or in any way undesirable information orinteraction with other nodes/entities. Humans consciously andsubconsciously already utilise such filtering in their daily life byplacing greater weighting on information from friends and acquaintancesthan from unfamiliar sources.

Throughout virtually every aspect of human life, economic, social,personal and business decisions are either directly or indirectlyaffected by the preferences, tastes and actions of our friends,colleagues and acquaintances. This is in contrast to widely acceptedeconomic theory in the fields of, for example, consumer purchases whereit is assumed individuals make rational choices based upon the availableproduct or service information. In actual fact, a recommendation, or anadverse comment from a close trusted acquaintance regarding a specificproduct will often override other factors in a commercial purchasedecision, rightly or not. There are many other areas in which theopinions of respected acquaintances or even organisations can affect thedecision making of individuals or organisations.

Examples of just a few embodiments or activities in which trusted orrespected contacts or recommendations play a significant role includeseeking employment and filling job vacancies, investment opportunities,academic co-operation, finding accommodation or people to shareaccommodation with, buying and selling goods and services, arrangingsocial/sporting functions, finding friendship, romantic and/or socialrelationships and so forth.

There are thus numerous possible embodiments that could benefit from adiscriminating means of forming a network of contacts with entities ofknown value to the user.

Considering the example of employment, the task of finding a suitableemployee amongst a potentially huge number of applicants obtainedthrough public advertising can be a significant deterrent to manyemployers. Consequently, many vacancies are only advertised internallyor simply filled by recommendations from existing employees. However,such a system is, by its very nature, haphazard and dependant on anon-systematic information distribution system. Conversely, an idealcandidate seeking employment who wants to be aware of a suitable vacancyknown to one of his friends would have to systematically inquire withhis friends on a regular basis. In practice, this type of behaviourwould alienate many friends and thus is not typical. In addition, thecandidate would not be aware of vacancies know to friends of his friendsunless he could convince his friends to systematically enquire withtheir friends, which they are unlikely to do.

Nevertheless, employers are still confronted by numerous deficiencies inthe existing alternatives to finding an employee. As discussed above,advertising via traditional media outlets such as the newspapers,magazines and so forth can produce an excessive number of applicants.The filtering required to shortlist candidates for interview may bebased on misleading impressions formed from Curriculum Vitas, formalqualifications, age, experience and so forth. Furthermore, the cost ofthe advertising itself together with the processing cost of all the lowquality enquires can be a significant burden.

Recruitment agencies may be employed to locate and pre-filter potentialcandidates for higher calibre applicants, though this places a furtheroverhead on the employment process.

Internet employment advertising on online job-boards with open accessfor all potential candidates can expose the vacancy to a large number ofpotential candidates. However, this can also lead to numerousinappropriate responses from a variety of sources. Furthermore, theaforementioned disadvantages of newspaper magazine advertising are alsopresent with this method.

There is thus a need to harness the discriminatory powers of theknowledge, opinions and recommendations of an individual's extendedsocial network in an efficient and systematic manner without irritatingor alienating members of the network.

As a further example, the process of finding a personal friend orromantic partner is strongly affected by social connections. The desireto establish fulfilling relationships with other humans, whetherromantic or otherwise is one of the strongest human drives and can bethe cause of a great deal of anxiety, stress and uncertainty. The veryprocess of establishing relationships with other humans is often fraughtwith difficulties, compounded by the inherent characteristics of mosthumans to avoid risk and/or potential rejection.

Many relationships and marriages have traditionally been arranged byfamilies and/or stem from relationships established during school, work,or other situations where humans experience a common bond. Traditionaldemographics and cultural characteristics which historically haveprovided structures and opportunities for like minded individuals tomeet are increasingly being replaced or are considered undesirableand/or unacceptable to a large portion of society.

The increasing urbanisation of populations has resulted with peoplehaving lifestyles and schedules which preclude them from establishingsuccessful relationships. Consequently, many people have turned to lesstraditional means of finding potential mates and a variety of datingservices have been provided to meet such needs.

However, many of the factors which inhibit or pose difficulties forindividuals to establish relationships with strangers are equallyapplicable to many such dating services. Even when two people would bothlike to initiate the first steps in a relationship, shyness, fear ofrejection, or other social pressures or constraints often prevent theparties from establishing contact.

To overcome such difficulties, systems exist whereby people view videotapes/pictures of prospective partners and/or assess common areas ofinterest such as hobbies, employment and so forth to determine theirinterest in the potential partner.

The introduction of both parties is only effected if both parties arewilling to do so.

Unfortunately, for many people, the visual appearance and/or the statedpersonal interests are often not sufficient in themselves to overcomethe feeling of unease or trepidation of a user from meeting such apotential stranger on a ‘blind date’. The initial step itself actuallyapproaching a dating service can prove too embarrassing for many peoplethus precluding them from being assessed by potentially suitablepartners who do make use of the dating service.

Alternative means of matching potential partners include the use ofpersonal advertisements placed in magazines, newspapers and so forth. Inrecent times, this has been extended to include use of the internet as ameans of increasing the potential pool of suitable partners. In suchadvertisements, people provide a brief description of their ownpersonality traits and interests and express their preference of suchtraits in potential respondents. However, such descriptions are oftenmisleading or even untruthful and due to the lack of any independentmeans of verification available to the enquirer, such advertisements areoften treated with a great deal of scepticism by potential users.

Various attempts have been made to enhance such dating services bycomputerising the recordal and organisation of various humancharacteristics, seeking to provide enquirers with candidates matchingtheir desired lists of characteristics. None of the systems howeverovercome the fundamental reluctance of most people to initiate arelationship with a completely unknown individual.

People often become acquainted with their partner due to theirenvironment, i.e. school, college work and so forth and/or due tocontact through mutual friends.

The most prevalent factor leading to the majority of human relationshipsis the existence of such a common bond, link or situation/circumstance,either directly or indirectly with the eventual partner.

The very act of establishing friendship with a particular person confersat least a partial affirmation of the person's character, judgement andpersonality without which the friendship would not have been establishedin the first place. By proxy therefore, it is widely felt that friendsof a friend are also likely to meet the same criteria or standards whichformed the basis for the established friendship. The common factor ofhaving a mutual friend provides both potential partners with a degree ofreassurance of potential compatibility and like-mindedness which is notdiscernible through known dating services.

Despite the advantages of seeking potential relationships with friendsand friends of friends, it is generally impossible for people to attendall the social functions required to meet all the potentially suitablepartners in such an extended network of friends. Furthermore, whilstmany friends might be willing or keen to help match potentially suitablepartners, they may not want to become duly involved themselves.

Although the act of seeking a romantic relationship may involve contactwith an individual's extended network of friends, many non-romanticactivities and/or decisions are also influenced by the individual'sextended social network.

Contemporary living has confronted many individuals with a daily surplusof information. This bewildering array of choices and decisions vies forthe individual's attention in almost every aspect of their work,recreation, and social lives. The vast majority of information sourcesreceived by most individuals is biased to some extent by commercialinterests. Consequently, there is at least the perception theinformation may be incomplete, misleading or false. The lack ofindependent objectivity from these information sources leads toscepticism and/or a sense of futility, helplessness, or ambivalence inobtaining worthwhile advice. In contrast, a recommendation by trustedfriend of a particular product, service or the like, is likely to begiven far greater weighting. Such recommendations will often be accordedfar greater significance than any number of expensive, professionallyproduced, and theoretically compelling advertisements/productrecommendations.

An individual may seek a friend's opinion on a variety of issues, asidefrom commercial purchase issues. The choice of plumbers, dentists,lawyers and other suppliers for example, may be strongly influenced bypersonal recommendation. Whilst such specific choices may only ariseinfrequently, friends and acquaintances are often in frequent contactand may cover a wide range of matters, includingopinions/recommendations on issues such as books, films, entertainment,restaurants, and many others.

Potential implementations which may benefit from such a system arepotentially limitless and the above are given solely by way of example.

Various prior art methods have addressed these issues including:

U.S. Pat. No. 6,269,369 Robertson which teaches a means of implementinga computer-based personal contact manager that allows members to createand maintain contacts with other members and in doing so incorporatetheir contact details on their personalised address books. As furthermembers join the group, their contact details are optionallyincorporated in the address books of the existing members. Furthermore,any changes in the contact details of the members are automaticallyupdated in the address books of the other members. However, the systemis primarily directed to maintaining connectivity between individuals byupdating their contacts details, rather than sharing information betweenmembers of a unique private personal network.

US 2002/0091538 Schwartz et al teaches a means of fundraising via anetwork of friends. However, the system is tiered in a pyramidstructure, preventing meaningful any two-way exchange of informationbetween members of the network. Each member seeks to raise funds fromtheir other friends in a cascading fashion.

US 2002/0049816 Costin, IV at al also addresses the issue offundraising, but does not provide a unique personal, private networkthrough which its members may exchange information and interact.

WO 01/63423 Ikimbo, Inc teaches an “information and applicationdistribution system (IADS)” allowing interaction and communicationwithin defined communities. The system requires the installation of aclient-side executable application for each member of the community. Thecommunity is an organised network rather than a personalised one and isnot private.

WO 02/15050 Luth Research Inc teaches a method of conducting surveys andcollecting information. The invention invites people to become part of anetwork of people wishing to answer surveys and is not a unique, privatepersonal network that is unique to each user.

US 2001/0025253 Heintz et al teaches a multi-level award programme inwhich the internet activity of a enrolled user is tracked with awardpoints being earned for various specified activities. Further bonuspoints can be accrued by the user from other “second, third, forthlevel” users and so on. Heintz does not teach any means of selectiveinteraction within a group of entities known directly or indirectly toeach other on a unique, private personal network.

WO 01/01307 teaches a viral-based marketing system for use over acomputer network in which merchants of goods/services provide acommission to referral web sites according to the sales corresponding tothe referred users. The system is not a unique, private, personalnetwork suitable for selective interaction with the members who are allknown, directly or indirectly to the user.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,327,572 Morton et al teaches methods for introducingpotential customers to an information service having a voice-basedinterface and is specifically restricted to such audio systems.Therefore, the system does not provide for non-audio interaction ofentities within a unique, private, personal network, nor fornon-commercial activities.

WO 01/37232 teaches an internet-based match-making service between twopeople who already know each other, of each other, or met each other ata previous situation that can be described in sufficient detail tofacilitate a match. This system does not relate to individuals who havenot met though share a common link through an intermediary individual.

Other prior art systems include a great diversity of websites, networksand systems which enable users to interconnect with other users.However, none of the prior art provides a unique, private, personalnetwork for use with a membership which is specifically tailored andpersonalised to the user and whose details cannot be discerned for anexternal source outside the network and/or without specific permissionfrom the user.

All references, including any patents or patent applications cited inthis specification are hereby incorporated by reference. No admission ismade that any reference constitutes relevant prior art. The discussionof the references states what their authors assert, and the applicantsreserve the right to challenge the accuracy and pertinency of the citeddocuments. It will be clearly understood that, although a number ofprior art publications are referred to herein, this reference does notconstitute an admission that any of these documents form part of thecommon general knowledge in the art, in New Zealand or in any othercountry.

It is acknowledged that the term ‘comprise’ may, under varyingjurisdictions, be attributed with either an exclusive or an inclusivemeaning. For the purpose of this specification, and unless otherwisenoted, the term ‘comprise’ shall have an inclusive meaning—i.e. that itwill be taken to mean an inclusion of not only the listed components itdirectly references, but also other non-specified components orelements. This rationale will also be used when the term ‘comprised’ or‘comprising’ is used in relation to one or more steps in a method orprocess.

It is an object of the present invention to address the foregoingproblems or at least to provide the public with a useful choice.

Further aspects and advantages of the present invention will becomeapparent from the ensuing description which is given by way of exampleonly.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A social network system and method performed by a social network systemaccessible over a data network with a plurality of data input devicesconnectable to said data network, said social network system includingat least one host computer and a database of entity data records eachrelating to a corresponding user entity and containing one or moreentity attributes including at least one identifying characteristic ofsaid corresponding user entity,

said method providing a given user entity with a virtual, unique,private, personal, social network (hereinafter ‘social network’) formedfrom connections between contacts, said contacts being other userentities connected directly or indirectly to said first user entity;said method including:

-   -   communicating an invitation from a first user entity to one or        more other user entities selected by said first user entity for        inclusion in the first user entity's social network as a        contact;    -   recording, in said database, each user entity accepting said        invitation as being a direct contact directly connected to the        first user entity by a first degree of separation;    -   determining that for:        -   any second user entity directly connected to the first user            entity and        -   any third user entity directly connected to the second user            entity but not directly connected to the first user entity,    -   the first and third user entities are determined as being        indirect contacts, indirectly connected to each other with a        second degree of separation;    -   repeating the above steps for a given user entity having a        corresponding entity data record in said database, wherein said        given user entity is equivalent to said first user entity in        said repeated steps to create, for each said given user entity,        a corresponding individual, unique, personal, virtual social        network, thereby collectively forming a plurality of social        networks on said social network system, inter-connected by        mutually connected contacts; and    -   providing a given user entity with searchable access to at least        part of the entity data records stored in said database;    -   providing a given user entity with at least partial control of        privacy of their individual, unique, personal, virtual social        network with respect to a user entity seeking access to the        given user entity's data record by permitting the given user        entity to specify:        -   a connection factor between the given user entity and said            seeking user entity and/or        -   one or more entity attributes of said seeking user entity,    -   required to allow the seeking user entity access to said given        user entity's data record;    -   permitting a given user entity to take a role of provider or        participant in a predetermined activity and/or application via        said data network, wherein        -   a provider is a user entity providing an item or service to            at least one other user entity; and    -   a participant is a user entity utilising said provider's item or        service.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Further aspects of the present invention will become apparent from thefollowing description which is given by way of example only and withreference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1. shows a schematic block diagram of a preferred embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 2. shows a first embodiment flow chart implementation of theinvention shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3. shows a web page forming part of the first preferred embodiment;

FIG. 4. shows an e-mail forming part of the first preferred embodiment;

FIG. 5. shows a web page forming part of a second preferred embodimentof the present invention;

FIG. 6. shows a web page forming part of the second preferred embodimentlisting employment search results;

FIG. 7. shows a web page of an expanded job description of the resultsshown in FIG. 6;

FIG. 8. shows a user profile update according to the present invention;

FIG. 9. shows a web page form for inputting details of vacancy accordingto said second preferred embodiment;

FIG. 10. shows a invitation message template according to the secondpreferred embodiment.

FIG. 11. shows a visual indication of a network of connected individualshighlighting two interconnected unique personal networks of first orderfriendships, and

FIG. 12. shows the network displayed in FIG. 11 with a single user'ssecond, third and fourth degree connections highlighted.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As discussed above, the present invention may be implemented in numerousforms and embodiments. However, common to each embodiment is a socialnetwork system including; at least one host computer processorconnectable to at least one data network, a database accessible oversaid data network, and a plurality of data input devices connectable tosaid data network, said system configured to provided each user entitywith a virtual, unique, private, personal, social network (herein a‘social network’) formed from connections between contacts, saidcontacts being entities connected directly or indirectly to a userentity.

According to one aspect, the present invention provides a social networksystem and method of operation including; at least one host computerprocessor connectable to at least one data network, a databaseaccessible over said data network, and a plurality of data input devicesconnectable to said data network, said system configured to providedeach user entity with a virtual, unique, private, personal, socialnetwork (herein a ‘social network’) formed from connections betweencontacts, said contacts being entities connected directly or indirectlyto a user entity, said social network further providing respectiveinterrelationship context information associated with a connectionbetween at least two contacts and/or between a contact and said user.

According to a further aspect, the present invention provides a socialnetwork system and method of operation including: at least one hostcomputer processor connectable to at least one data network, a databaseaccessible over said data network, and a plurality of data input devicesconnectable to said data network, said system configured to providedeach user entity with a virtual, unique, private, personal, socialnetwork formed from connections between contacts, said contacts beingentities connected directly or indirectly to a user entity, wherein saidsocial network is configured to implement applications allowingindividual user entities to at least partially define at least one of;

-   -   the user's participation and degree of interaction in said        application;    -   the user's visibility and/or accessibility to other contacts or        entities with respect to said application and/or,    -   the user's role in said application.

According to a further aspect, the present invention provides a socialnetwork system and method of operation including: at least one hostcomputer processor connectable to at least one data network, a databaseaccessible over said data network, and a plurality of data input devicesconnectable to said data network, said system configured to providedeach user entity with a virtual, unique, private, personal, socialnetwork formed from connections between contacts, said contacts beingentities connected directly or indirectly to a user entity, wherein saidsocial network is configured to:

-   -   provide respective interrelationship context information        associated with a connection between at least two contacts        and/or between a contact and said user, said interrelationship        context information including a connection factor indicative of        the degree of separation between a contact and the user, said        connection factor incorporating a connection path length between        two contacts, given by the number of connections N in a chain of        contacts separating two contacts and;    -   allow a user entity to apply a selective interaction with other        contacts for a predetermined activity by controlling the value        of N^(th) degrees of connections separating the user from a        contact to be included, where N is a variable determined by the        user.

According to a further aspect, the present invention provides a socialnetwork system and method of operation including: at least one hostcomputer processor connectable to at least one data network, a databaseaccessible over said data network, and a plurality of data input devicesconnectable to said data network, said system configured to providedeach user entity with a virtual, unique, private, personal, socialnetwork formed from connections between contacts, said contacts beingentities connected directly or indirectly to a user entity, wherein saidsocial network is configured to implement applications allowingindividual user entities to perform one or more roles, wherein saidroles include;

-   -   a provider, being an entity providing a tangible or intangible        item, element, issue or service made available to at least one        other entity.    -   a participant, being an entity utilising said provider's        tangible or intangible item, element, issue or service.

According to a further aspect, the present invention provides a methodof creating a unique private personal social network for a user entityusing a system including at least one host computer processorconnectable to at least one data network, a database accessible oversaid data network, and a plurality of data input devices connectable tosaid data network,

said system being configured by said method to provide each user entitywith a virtual, unique, private, personal, social network formed fromconnections between contacts, being entities connected directly orindirectly to a user entity, said method including the steps of:

-   -   said system receiving a user entity data input including at        least one identifying characteristic of the user entity and        recording said data input in a corresponding entity data record;    -   said system receiving a further user entity data input including        at least one identifying characteristic of one or more entities        known directly or indirectly to said user entity and chosen by        said user entity for invitation to the user entity's social        network as a contact;    -   communicating said invitation to said chosen entities;    -   recording each consenting entity accepting said invitation as a        new contact connected to the user entity and storing at least        the identifying characteristic of each new contact in a        corresponding database entity data record;    -   repeating the above steps for each consenting entity to create        corresponding individual, unique, private, personnel social        networks, collectively forming a plurality of social networks on        said system, inter-connected by mutually connected contacts;    -   providing searchable access to at least part of the entity data        records stored in said database.

According to a further aspect, the present invention provides a socialnetwork software application configured for implementation with a socialnetwork system including: at least one host computer processorconnectable to at least one data network, a database accessible oversaid data network, and a plurality of data input devices connectable tosaid data network, said system configured to provided each user entitywith a virtual, unique, private, personal, social network formed fromconnections between contacts, said contacts being entities connecteddirectly or indirectly to a user entity, wherein said social networkapplication is configured to allow individual user entities to at leastpartially define at least one of;

-   -   the user entity's participation and degree of interaction in        said application;    -   the user entity's visibility and/or accessibility to other        contacts or entities with respect to said application and/or,    -   the user entity's role in said application.

As used herein, the term ‘entity’ or ‘entities’ refers to anyindividual, family, personal or organised network, organisation, club,society, company, partnership, religion, or entity that exists as aparticular and discrete unit.

By being private, the social network prevents unrestricted access to theinformation and the user entity's contacts contained therein, filteringout unwanted approaches by unauthorised entities.

Preferably, said system includes for each entity one or more entityattributes, including at least one identifying characteristic.

Preferably, said entity attributes include information regardingpersonal details, factors or interests; friends; relations; schoolalumni; employment factors; business colleagues; professionalacquaintances; sexual preferences, persuasions, or proclivities;sporting interests; entertainment, artistic, creative or leisureinterests; travel interests, commercial, religious, political,theological or ideological belief or opinions; academic, scientific, orengineering disciplines; humanitarian, social, security/military oreconomic fields and any combination of same.

Preferably, interrelationship context information includes a connectionfactor indicative of the separation between entity contact and the userentity, and optionally also the separation between contacts in said userentity's social network.

Preferably, said identifying characteristics of an entity encompassesany communication means capable of individually communicating with saidentity including, but not limited to, the entities name and preferably ameans of contacting the entity, preferably including an e-mail address;telephone and/or facsimile number; postal address an/or any combinationof such means.

The interrelationship context information optionally includes details ofone or more entity attributes. Therefore, in addition to the user'sknowledge that another entity is a direct contact (i.e. there is nointermediary between the entity and the user entity) or knowledge of theconnections via which the entity is indirectly known/connected to theuser (i.e. the connection factor), further interrelationship contextinformation may be available via details of any corresponding entityattributes made available to the user

It is thus axiomatic that said interrelationship context informationself-explanatorily provides information about the context of theinterrelationship between a connection between at least two contactsand/or between a contact and said user. More specifically, and insummary of the above, said interrelationship context informationincludes at least one:

-   -   entity attribute,    -   entity identifying characteristic, and/or    -   a connection factor indicative of the separation between two        contacts and/or between a contact and the user

It will be appreciated that there is a distinct difference in thepresent invention between organised networks and unique, privatepersonal social networks. An organised network forms agroup/organisation with a defined membership who all have a common aim,or interest such as, political parties, academic or engineeringinstitutes, sporting bodies and so forth.

In contrast, a unique, private personal social network is formed from acombination of contacts that are unique to an individual with entitiessuch as friends and colleagues. Thus, an individual user entity of thepresent invention may be linked to other user entity's unique, privatepersonal social networks and be linked to (or even be a member of)organised networks.

Said organised network entities may be formed by groups of individualentities possessing one or more common entity attributes.

Thus, an organised network may be connected to a user's unique socialnetwork as;

-   -   a single entity with entity attributes relating to the whole        organised network, and/or    -   as a plurality of entities comprising the membership of the        organised network, whereby each such entity would each posses at        least the common entity attribute of membership of the organised        network.

Preferably, access to the interrelationship context information betweenthe user and said entities is restricted. According to one aspect of thepresent invention, said restricted access defined by the user.

According to an alternative aspect, the present invention furtherprovides a tool to map relationship networks.

Entities, including the user entity may be considered as “nodes” in anetwork.

The invention provides a unique, private personal network with aplurality of users or entities represented as nodes, each node being atthe origin of an individual unique, private personal network consistingof the user and a variable number of additional nodes.

Each node preferably includes at least one identifying characteristicsof the corresponding entity it represents including the entities nameand preferably a means of contacting the entity, preferably including ane-mail address; telephone and/or facsimile number; postal address and/orany communication means capable of individually communicating with theentity or any combination of such means.

According to a further aspect of the present invention, there isprovided a means of visually displaying the interconnections between thenodes.

Preferably, a user's unique, private personal network may be visuallyrepresented on an electronic display in one or more of the followingforms, including:

-   -   graphical, alphanumeric and/or animated symbols representing        nodes joined by lines, or some form of visual link representing        the connections between the nodes;    -   a solid line indicating entities who have joined or have        consented to join the user's unique, private personal network;    -   dotted lines indicating entities who have been invited but they        have not joined the user's unique, private personal network;    -   different symbols to differentiate between nodes representing        different types of entities;    -   different symbols to depict nodes representing entities who are        individuals and those representing organisations;    -   symbols at least partially resembling people to depict nodes        representing actual individuals;    -   different symbols, colours, animations and/or sounds for a node        to indicate the existence of defined information of interest        including a particular predetermined activity, identifying        characteristic, entity attribute, or other data recorded in a        nodes data record;    -   different colours/symbols for different roles in a specific        application, such as in an employment application for employers        and job seekers and/or the existence of a link to details of a        job vacancy;    -   displaying further defined information of interest or permitted        actions when positioning a cursor or visual indicator over a        node depending, and varying the information displayed depending        on the user's degree of separation from the node;    -   nodes representing a person or an organised network also showing        a numerical indication of the number of direct contacts        associated with the node;    -   a indicative rather than literal indication of the number of        links to a node if number exceeds a defined value, with a        numerical value showing the actual number of connections;    -   user customisable representations for nodes, including images,        photographs and figures;    -   different visual appearance of a node symbol to indicate the        status of an activity, e.g. a higher intensity symbol indicating        a successful linking of a job seeker with a vacancy;

Preferably said identifying characteristics also include at least one ofsaid entity attributes.

Optionally, said identifying characteristics may include supplementaryattributes of said user or entity.

The need for such supplementary attribute(s) is dependent on thespecific purpose to which the system/unique, private personal network isbeing applied.

Preferably, a entity becomes a contact in the social network system byindependent registration or by accepting an invitation from a userentity to become a contact directly connected to the user entity.

Entities agreeing to inclusion in a user's unique, private personalsocial network are said to be direct contacts.

According to one embodiment, entities included in the database systemwhich are indirectly or unconnected to a user entity may become directlyconnected by mutual agreement, preferably by one entity sending aninvitation and the other accepting.

As referred to herein, if two entities are linked through any number ofintermediate entities they are said to be “connected”. Furthermore, iftwo entities exist independently in the database system or an individualuser entity's social network with no intermediate connecting entitiesare said to be “disconnected”.

In one embodiment, the said connection factor incorporates theconnection path length between two contacts, given by the number ofconnections in a chain of contacts separating two contacts.

In a further embodiment, the said connection factor incorporates thedegree of separation between two contacts and is equal to the shortestconnection path length of all the available connection paths between thecontacts, wherein a direct contact directly connected to another contactis a “1^(st) degree contact,” and has a connection path length of one,two contacts connected via one intermediate contact are said to be“2^(nd) degree contacts,” and have a connection path length of two, andwherein any two contacts whose shortest connection path is via “N−1”contacts, with a path length of “N” have an “N^(th)” degree contact,where “N” is an integer.

According to one embodiment, an application or communication isinitiated by one or more entities, and responded to by one or morefurther entities. According to a further embodiment, users may searchfor other entities that desire to conduct an application orcommunication, optionally selecting to be notified of future suchevents.

According to one embodiment, the present invention is configured toallow a user entity to apply a selective interaction with other entitiesfor a predetermined activity by controlling the value of N^(th) degreesof connections separating the user from a contact to be included, whereN is a variable determined by the user.

Preferably, said predetermined activity includes instigating,continuing, terminating or responding to an application, search,communication, and/or selective information distribution.

Alternatively, a user engaged in one or more said predeterminedactivities may specify the activity to apply to

-   -   all degrees of contact in the user's unique, private personal        network, at any connection path length, or    -   the entire system network of all entities, including those who        are not connected to the user.

Preferably, said applications include (but are not limited to) consumerdecisions, buying, selling, trading, loaning; findingflatmates/roommates, tenants; organising activities and events,recommendations/opinions including those related to films, plays, books,employment, services, tradesmen, accommodation, restaurants and thelike, comparison and explorations of common interests, e.g. horseriding, snowboarding, etc; sharing peer-to-peer personal or businesscreative work or content, e.g. photos, art-work, literature, music;managing a club or society; locating/supplying/“blacklisting” providersof goods or services; business or technological advice unsuitable forpublication; recruitment, job-seeking; estate agents; venture capital;collaborative ventures; referrals; police/security informationgathering/informants; event manager; address book manager; searchengines; headhunting; book mark service; spam filtering; car sharing;sales leads; market entry advice; real-estate; sharing personal orbusiness files; company knowledge management; medical advice; travelorganiser, lending/borrowing; house-sitting; baby-sitting; classifiedadvertisements; finding musicians.

In addition, the present invention permits conducting applications withnetworks outside the system network.

This control over information distribution allows the user entities tobalance the trade-off between the amount of visibility of theapplication or communication or search in their social network, and thedegrees of separation between the user entity and potential initiatingor responding entities.

It will be appreciated that there are numerous potential reasons forlimiting the degrees of separation of entities contacted by the user forany predetermined activity, said reasons including, but are not limitedto, social, economic, or political contexts such as trust, discretion,interest, association, preference, shared experience, ethnicity,religion, language, location, allegiance, alliance, treaty, politics, orgovernment.

According to a further aspect of the present invention, access to atleast a portion of the said identifying characteristics of each entityis restricted, optionally as a function of the connection factor.

In one embodiment, each user entity may only access the name and contactdetails of direct contacts in its social network. Optionally, each userentity can see for each of its direct contacts the number of directcontacts that they have, in order to recognise which of their contactsare successful and which are not in connecting to others, and to promptthem.

Optionally, a user entity can only see the number or partial name ofcontacts connected within each of the user's N degrees of contactsgreater than the second degree of separation. This achieves twopurposes, firstly it prevents user entities from inviting other entitiesto be direct contacts without the existence of an appropriateinterrelationship context or relationship which predisposes the entitiesto be direct contacts, and secondly, it still allows two entitiesinvolved in an application, for example, to consult their directcontacts in the connection path that links them, and if necessary, theirdirect contacts can consult their direct contacts further into thelinking connection path, to support the entities use of the application.

According to a further aspect of the present invention, communicationbetween entities may be restricted to contact solely via the systemaccording to the degree of separation between the entities.

In one embodiment, only a user entity's direct contact(s) are providedwith the user entity's contact details enabling communicationindependently of the system.

Thus, entities known indirectly to the user, i.e. second degree contactsor those with a greater connection path may only communicate with theuser via the system and are not given the user's e-mail address forexample.

This provides a yet further screen for users from direct interactionwith entities with whom they are not yet totally familiar. If thesituation changes and an entity becomes trusted, better known to theuser, they may be upgraded to a direct contact and given the user'stelephone number, email address or similar contact details.Alternatively, a user entity particularly concerned with privacy mayexclude even their first degree contacts from accessing their contactdetails. All contact would then be via the system.

The assurance that email (or other communication means prone to includeunsolicited messages/correspondence) from the user's social networkcomes from a defined list of entities whose knowledge of the user'scontact details is controllable by the user entity.

Thus, the present invention may be used as a filter for any form ofelectronic communication by prioritising communications from entities inthe user's social network within a defined degree of separation, overother communications.

This effectively acts as a spam filter for e-mail, text messaging, voicemail, or any other means which identifies the communication'soriginator, which may then be compared with the user entity's directcontacts for example.

In further embodiments, the user entities may selectively control accessto the identifying characteristics of itself and/or, with consent, anycontact within a permitted degree of separation from the user entity.Preferably, said selective control is variable according on thepredetermined activity being undertaken.

Although access to the identifying characteristics and connection pathsof particular entities may be restricted to specific entities accordingto the configuration settings of the system and/or entities involved,nevertheless the system records and maintains these details.

Therefore, according to a further embodiment, the system automaticallyupdates changes in the identifying characteristics, contact details,entity attributes, and any other data associated with and/or inputted bya user entity and records same in entity data records associated witheach entity.

Thus, according to a further aspect, the system automatically maintainsconnectivity between contacts following changes in contact detailsand/or the integrity of any aspect of a predetermined activity dependanton the contents of said entity data records of the contacts involved byvirtue of said automatic updating.

In one embodiment, the system auto-synchronises the contact details ofcontacts accessible to the user with electric contact details stored inany electronic or data storage media connected to the system, e.g.address books in laptops, mobile phones, PC and so forth.

Preferably, after a user entity has formed its own social network, itmay vary the degree of separation of the contacts to be involved in apredetermined activity, without need to reconstruct the social networkfor each activity.

Even if a user entity is not active in building its network of directcontacts, its network may continue to evolve and grow or shrinkdepending on the invitation activity of other contacts it is connectedwith.

The said system provides a platform for developers to provide the userentities with applications and communication services. The system mayalso be provided to the user entity with an initial suite of specificapplications and communication services.

There are clearly a myriad of possible applications where knowledge of adirect contact, or recommendation by, a trusted entity will affect thedecisions of a user entity.

As an illustration, a commercial entity such as a multinational softwareproducer may utilise a database composed of suppliers with a proventrack record, e.g. secure credit history, prompt product delivery or lowproduct faults. The user entity's 1^(st) degree may be asked forrecommendations for further trade related entities, employmentvacancies, collaboration request and so forth.

A police/security service database may include data on informants with acreditability factor assigned to each according to the assessment ofother police/security agencies or individual of same. Other securityagencies accessing the data would be able to infer a measure ofcredibility to the data from their degree of separation from the otheragency and/or informant.

In addition to a user entity's awareness of the degree of separationbetween themselves and a given entity, various other informationregarding the personal details and/or activities of other entities inthe user's social network may be searchable or otherwise made availableto the user entity.

Thus, the present invention also provides a user entity with searchableaccess to the system for information derived from a variety of sources,including that recorded in said data records, including the identifyingcharacteristics, contact details, entity attributes, and saidpredetermined activities.

Also optionally searchable are various supplementary attributesdetailing specific details of the entity relevant to a particularapplication or activity. As an example, in a romance/friendship relateddatabase, the supplementary attribute may include (but are not limitedto) the following;

-   -   marital or relationship status (e.g. single, married divorced,        separated, de facto, single but uninterested in a relationship        at present, and so forth);    -   physical attributes;    -   photographs;    -   a rating, assessment, quantification, qualification, or comment        on the or each said entity attribute from one or more chosen        entities by the user.

Optionally said chosen users may prohibit the recordal of any or alldetails stored or potentially stored in their respective user entitydata record from being searchable and/or stored on said database.

According to a further aspect, the present invention provides users withsearchable access to the system to search for entities matching apredetermined profile composed of user-defined entity attributes,identifying characteristics, supplementary attributes, predeterminedactivities or any combination of same.

The present invention may also be used to contact and/or conveyinformation to entities matching a said predetermined profile.

Thus, according to a further aspect of the present invention, saiddatabase is searchable for entities matching a predetermined profile.

In one embodiment, a number of core steps are applicable to compilingand using a database for different applications. A first user entityinputs the details of all the entities (i.e. their friends, colleagues,family or anyone else they value in some way) they believe would bewilling to be recorded on the database as chosen individuals, andspecifies their e-mail address as their identifying characteristic andoptionally ‘friend’ as the link between the parties.

Each chosen individual is then notified of their inclusion (or potentialinclusion) in the database and optionally notified of the or each commonfactor liking them to the first user if this is not self evident, e.g.“you have received an invitation from your friend David to be recordedon [application specific] database and he invites you to input details(i.e. e-mail address) of your friends to the data base . . . ”

The process is then repeated as each friend of the original useragreeing to participate provides the requested identifyingcharacteristic information and their chosen friends are automaticallycontacted (via e-mail) in the same manner and invited to participate.

In one embodiment, said searchable access is available only toprescribed user entities.

According to one aspect of the present invention, the said prescribedusers provided with searchable access of the database are determined bya defined eligibility criteria.

In one embodiment, said eligibility criteria includes being a payingsubscriber to said system.

In alternative embodiments, the said eligibility criteria definition maybe based on any of the above described entity attributes, identifyingcharacteristic—including said, supplementary attributes or combinationof same.

According to one aspect of the present invention, individual userentities may chose to optionally restrict access to part or all of theirstored data in their entity data record to other entities withparticular identifying characteristics, supplementary attributes and/orentity attributes.

In this manner, entities are able to alter their searchable detailsaccording to different applications—for example, an individual may bewilling to be contacted by any search looking for photographyenthusiasts but does not want unrestricted access to the fact they workfor a genetic research laboratory.

Potential users of such a system can be reassured that they will beincluded in a unique, private personal social network whereby onlyothers with a common connection (e.g. friends, friends of friends, orfriends of friends of friends and so forth) will be able to access theirpersonal details if they chose to make them available.

Furthermore, the system does not necessarily require the user entity tomake contact with an entity located through a search of the systemdatabase. Instead, the system provides a means of informing the userentity of the existence of the located entity together with theknowledge of a common link, e.g. a shared mutual acquaintance.

Preferably, the system allows user access across a network, includingthe Internet, an intranet; wide and local area networks; a telephone orpager networks, telephone-based text-messaging or facsimiles; automatedmail-server systems; power transmission networks, wireless networks;networks comprised of other telecommunication links: postal or courierservices and the like.

It will be appreciated that the present invention may be used with amultitude of applications as given above. These include any applicationwhere an action may be influenced, or information sought, as a result ofknowledge derived from an entity known, either directly, or indirectlyto the user.

The present invention enables information flow not only betweenimmediate acquaintances, but also with the subsequent tiers of entityacquaintances, e.g. friends of friends, friends of friends of friends,and beyond, to include even larger domains of entities. The coreprinciples and elements of the invention, namely the ability to transferinformation within a social network whose members are directly orindirectly known to the user, giving an interrelationship context to anyinformation transfer, may be applied a diverse range of applicationswithout need to adapt the principles of operation.

Multiple applications may be derived using a database comprised of datafrom the same entities by utilising different aspects of the entityinterrelations. Moreover, the present invention enables user entities torecord information about themselves and apply selective screening on whoelse may view the information, and from whom they obtain information.

In one embodiment, a user entity may choose or be assigned (by thesystem or another entity) a role in an application, or a saidpredetermined activity.

Preferably, the roles include at least one of provider, participant, orfacilitator roles.

Although the exact nature of a provider, participant or facilitator rolein an application will vary according to the specifics of theapplication, in general these terms may be defined as follows;

-   -   A provider is an entity with some form of tangible (e.g. a        product to sell, a job vacancy, a house to let) or intangible        (e.g. information, participation in a sporting event, emotional        support for counselling, on offer of friendship/romance) item,        element or service which they can contribute, pass on, give,        sell, make available to another entity.    -   A participant is an entity utilising the provider's tangible or        intangible item or service, e.g., obtaining from the provider        (either directly or indirectly) a product, service, job, advice,        recommendation, contact details, specific information, a        relationship and so forth.    -   A facilitator or link is an entity facilitating a successful        interaction between a provider and participant, e.g. an entity        who forwards a job vacancy from a provider (an employer) to a        potential participant (a job seeker) without seeking the        product/service/activity from the provider for their own use.

Fees for use of the system may constitute a subscription, one-offpayment, an on-going time-based payment, be based on the quantity ornature of database search results, or based on the number and type ofsuccessful outcomes from use of the services.

The system may also be used to reward user entities for theircontribution in a predetermined activity such as linking potentialemployer with an appropriate employee. Thus, according to oneembodiment, a reward is provided to an entity according to their successin fulfilling their designated role in a predetermined activity.

Preferably, a reward is given to a facilitator for aiding in linking aprovider with a participant.

Optionally, the reward recipient is chosen by the provider orfacilitator.

According to a further aspect of the present invention, said systemincludes;

-   -   at least one host computer processor connectable to one or more        network(s),    -   a database accessible over said network(s),    -   a plurality of data input devices connectable to said        network(s),    -   wherein said system is capable of forming said unique private        personal social network for each of one or more user entities by        receiving input from the said user entity including at least one        identifying characteristic of the user entity and of one or more        chosen entities known to said user,    -   recording said identifying characteristic of each entity        including the user to form one or more corresponding entity data        records in said database,    -   notifying the or each chosen entity of their recordal on said        system and requesting input of at least one identifying        characteristic of one or more further entities known to the or        each said chosen entity,    -   recording the identifying characteristic of each further entity        inputted by the or each said chosen entity to form further        corresponding entity data records,    -   repeating the above steps of successive notification of further        entities and recordal of the identifying characteristic of each        further entity chosen as further entity data records,    -   providing searchable access to at least part of the entity data        records stored in said database.

Searchable access to an entity data record may be restricted by theentity to other said prescribed entities.

Preferably, said data input devices are computer terminals, PDAs,telephones, mobile phones, laptops, notebooks, any other portablepersonal computing device connectable to said network, preferably butnot limited to the internet. Said data input devices may providewebpage, e-mail, text message, DTMF tone, voice or video access to thesaid host computer or between entities and/or web-browsing access tosaid host computer via a dedicated web-site interface.

According to one embodiment, entities stored on said database may beperiodically provided with indicative information relating to additionalnew entities with an entity attribute matching that recorded in theentities user data record, which have been inputted to the system sincethe entities' last system access and/or said automated periodic update.

Said indicative information may provide a simple numerical indication ofnew recorded entities, new or altered identifying characteristics orentity attributes of existing stored entities, or alternatively mayinclude at least part of the details contained in the respective entityuser data records of the new users.

According to a further embodiment, a referral chain formed by thesequence of preceding chosen entities sharing a common predeterminedfactor leading to the eventual choice of a particular entity forinclusion in the database may be recorded in the entity user datarecord.

According to a still further embodiment, anonymous references regardinga particular entity may be requested of one or more entities identifiedwithin the corresponding referral chain relating to said particularindividual.

As potential users of this system may be reluctant to disclose some orall of the various entity attributes, identifying characteristics,supplementary attributes referred to above, a variety of incentives orreassurances may be provided according to the nature of the system. In arelationship/romantic implementation, a means of indirectly assessingthe potential suitability of an individual for a relationship of somekind may be garnered by considering the prospective individual'sresponse or opinion to various neutral or non-threatening issues, suchas the user's favourite joke, quote, movie and the like.

Thus, in a further aspect of the present invention, an entity isprompted for a response to predetermined questions relating tonon-sensitive, matters of opinion on neutral topics, said responsesbeing stored as part of the entity data record searchable by saidselected users.

A consequence of the information distribution systems prevalentthroughout the world and the aggressive marketing of products andservices are a potential overload of information. Filtering thisinformation is a fundamental task to permit decisions on the numerouschoices confronting a typical individual. The advice and exampleprovided by our peers/close friends and relatives is a significantfiltering technique employed unconsciously by most people. The presentinvention harnesses this filtering ability and the collective opinionsand knowledge of an entity's extended network of contacts.

Thus, instead of compiling a searchable database purely for a singlepurpose, e.g. job finding, sporting interests, or friendship/romanticmotives, alternative/additional applications may be layered onto thedatabase. The additional data obtained from the entity's identifyingcharacteristics may be used to provide users with the means of obtaininginformation related to any of the above applications from within theirown unique extended unique, private personal network of contacts.

The present invention enables a more systematic access to the opinions,knowledge, recommendations and so forth of an extended network ofcontacts than would otherwise be possible without endlessly disturbingeach contact.

Applications most suited for implementation of the present invention arecharacterised by;

-   -   a high reliance on personal relationships;    -   a significant need/problem to solve;    -   a need to access an extended social, business, recreational,        cultural or other restricted network but not the general public;    -   networks with a large number of people;    -   high inter-personal information flows; and/or    -   a large number of people to co-ordinate; and/or    -   the network members have insufficient time available to perform        all their desired activities, or have insufficient time to        communicate with or maintain connections with their personal        contacts.

To effect a successful implementation of the present invention to a newapplication ideally requires the identification of the followingfactors;

-   -   the different roles of the possible participants (e.g. employer,        employee, facilitator/link, recruiter);    -   any social rules that may apply (e.g. notification only for jobs        of interest or when candidates enquire);    -   any specific restrictions or special features related to the        possible participants; and;    -   the different motivations of different roles.

These factors may be readily used to adapt the core functionality of theinvention in an open-platform software embodiment. This platform wouldenable third parties to develop network applications that link into itas well. Although these applications are currently implemented on anInternet and e-mail platform they are not necessarily restricted tosame.

It can be thus seen that individual industries may adapt the presentinvention to their own peculiarities and characteristics. Personal ororganisation networks are utilised by each Industry in different waysand to varying degrees. A Share broker and Venture Capitalists would usepersonal networks, though in a distinct manner and purpose.Nevertheless, by identifying what the unique, private personal socialnetworks are used for, and the different roles played byindividuals/organisations (i.e. entities) in the industry, the presentinvention may be adapted to enhance individuals/organisationseffectiveness.

Different companies within a given sector of an industry may havespecific criteria to define how their employees utilize their networksof friends and colleagues as part of their work. This could be as simpleas a particular company template used for e-mail communication withother entities via the said database.

Using the Venture Capital example again, personal social networks may beused in a variety of tasks—some industry specific, some genericcommercial tasks. These may range from senior executive recruitment,seeking specialized co-investment partners, conducting technical duediligence to ordering office supplies. However, in each instance, thepresent invention may be used to compile, maintain and update their listof contacts.

Furthermore, unlike existing information-gathering systems/techniques,the present invention allows the user to extend their information search(whether it be for a potential olive pressing plant investment companyor a new office photocopier supplier) beyond their immediate contacts.Moreover, it also avoids incessantly interrupting all of their contactswhilst ensuring the potentially relevant ones are notified.

A key benefit of the present invention is the ability to layerinformation requests or dissemination with the user's extended socialnetwork of contacts according to the user's purpose. If an individual isembarking on a project requiring diverse and/or specialist input, theninformation requests may be restricted from clearly uninterestedcontacts. Thus, an individual organizing a working-party detail at aremote club ski-field for example, would exclude contacting anynon-local individuals.

In this instance, the particular criterion used in restricting thedatabase search results is geographical proximity. It may be seen thatby adding additional criteria, e.g. “possesses four wheeled drivetransport, physically able, an interest in the outdoor, a relevantcraft/trade skill (welding, carpentry, diesel mechanic)” may furtheroptimize the search. The available criteria depend on the informationstored in the respective entity data records, i.e. the identifyingcharacteristics, entity attributes and supplementary attributes.

A venture capitalist thinking of investing in a biotechnology projectmay only notify specific entities within their network. However, thesame individual may want include different friends and colleagues inyour “romance” and “employment” situations.

In an employment-orientated application, the user may notify differentpeople within their network depending on the nature of the employment.As an example, finding a new sales person will undoubtedly engage adifferent part of a user's social network compared to seeking a newsoftware database programmer. It may be appropriate to exclude certainindividuals from a search, e.g. the superior of a disenchanted employee,where the user knows both individuals.

The manner in which a user controls information flow is adaptable tosocial or commercial change. A user may have close trusted friends whoare categorised as able to see all information. Less trustedacquaintances may be accorded certain restrictions or qualifications,e.g., “don't invite Sam Dee to any function without Jane Doe”.

It can be thus seen that the criteria forming the predetermined profileof an entity sought by the user may include additional ‘external’factors from those stored in an entity data record according to a userdefined ‘rule’. These external factors may be extremely varied anddiverse and include, for example, world or local events, the weather,time, anniversaries/birthdays or whatever factors or issues a userwishes to affect their activities.

As an illustration, a user may wish to automatically contact otherindividuals who snowboard for a backcountry trip, but only if themeteorological office indicates a ‘powder day’, or if there is noavalanche warnings. Whilst being a snowboarder could be stored as anentity attribute/identifying characteristic, clearly the snow/weatherreports are externally generated and altered dynamically.

Therefore, according to a further aspect of the present invention,criteria for matching a predetermined profile in a search of saiddatabase includes one or more external factors, preferably according toone or more said user-defined rules.

As previously stated, friends and colleagues often ask each other forrecommendations when selecting product and services, e.g., “do you knowa good doctor, mechanic etc”. These recommendations can be stored in anentity data record as either an entity attribute, identifyingcharacteristic, or supplementary attribute pertaining to that entity.

This enables, for example, a user's friends to see what washing machinethey recommended (or did not recommend) and optionally use a hyperlinkconnection to the manufacturers web-site, for example. Such a mechanismwould enable a means of generating revenue from the productmanufacturer.

In one embodiment therefore, the present invention records a userentity's recommendations regarding consumer items and/or services aspart of the user's data record.

Preferably, a hyperlink connection to a web site of a manufacturer of arecommended product.

A variety of means are possible including, according to one embodiment,a financial, product or service reward is provided to an entity by amanufacturer according to a predetermined number of hyperlink accessesattributed to the user' recommendation.

Alternatively in a further embodiment, the manufacturer may directlysubsidise the company hosting the searchable database system accordingto the total number of referrals, whilst optionally, the individualsystem users may receive a proportionally discounted subscription to thesystem.

Alternatively, the service and/or product providers receive apredetermined number of recommendations without charge after which theyare invited to pay a fee to be maintained as a searchable term on thedatabase. In use for example, a user entity may know his close friendhas a particular brand washing machine. The user entity may then searchto see who else has that particular machine rather than asking all hiscontacts on the database what washing machine they posses.

The service/product providers may be contacted informing them whichentities contacted them directly via the present invention. Thisdemonstrates to the service/product provider the value of this methodfor generating business, thus encouraging them to pay to join theservice.

It is necessary to provide an incentive for entities to record theirrecommendations, or opinions of products and services. One method is forservice/product providers to provide discounts to entities thatrecommend them. The present invention monitors all successful referralsand ensures the appropriate discounts are received by the relevantentities. Revenue is generated from a retaining a percentage of thediscounted savings received from the service/product provider.

To facilitate ease of use, service and product providers using thepresent invention can use customizable emails that they send to happycustomers. This e-mail includes a one click link to allow the service orproduct provider to be added to that persons list of recommendations. Ifthe individual is not a user of the present invention, they are promptedto join.

The present invention may be expanded from an essentially web-email basesystem to incorporate a mobile voice connectivity component. In thesimplest embodiment, the system of the present invention defines asocial network formed by the entities stored in the database. Thissocial network communicates via email and the web, and if voicecommunication is needed, the system users may simply telephone eachother. No direct assistance is needed other than possibly viewing therelevant portion of other entities data record or being informed via amessage (email, SMS, EMS, MMS, or chat, for example) of the otherentity's phone number(s).

According to a further aspect of the present invention there is provideda method of creating a unique, private personal social network for auser entity using a system including at least one host computerprocessor connectable to at least one data network, a databaseaccessible over said data network, and a plurality of data input devicesconnectable to said data network,

said system being configured by said method to provide each user entitywith a virtual, unique, private, personal, social network formed fromconnections between contacts, being entities connected directly orindirectly to a user entity, said method including the steps of:

-   -   said system receiving a user entity data input including at        least one identifying characteristic of the user entity and        recording said data input in a corresponding entity data record;    -   said system receiving a further user entity data input including        at least one identifying characteristic of one or more entities        known directly or indirectly to said user entity and chosen by        said user entity for invitation to the user entity's social        network as a contact;    -   communicating said invitation to said chosen entities;    -   recording each consenting entity accepting said invitation as a        new contact connected to the user entity and storing at least        the identifying characteristic of each new contact in a        corresponding database entity data record;    -   repeating the above steps for each consenting entity to create        corresponding individual, unique, private, personnel social        networks, collectively forming a plurality of social networks on        said system, inter-connected by mutually connected contacts;    -   providing searchable access to at least part of the entity data        records stored in said database.

In a more sophisticated implementation, the present invention can offerautomation of the dialing process and value-added services such asconferencing, messaging, and interactive voice response/premium-rateservices.

In a further embodiment, the system further provides automated dialingvia a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) through a web-basedfunction allowing the user to request the telephone network to make acall to two or more entities involved in a predetermined activity andconnect them via a bridge in the networking the network. Automationthrough Internet telephony would allow the user to directly initiate anInternet telephony call to the desired parties.

Telephone conferencing may be used to facilitate combining the featuresand services of the present invention into a single call. Again, thiscan be accomplished through a PSTN conference bridge or Internettelephony.

Providing a voice mailbox to which a user could redirect their existingvoice mail subscriptions could be used to supplement existing messagingfacilities. The advantage of a social-network based messaging system isthat it would be able to separate messages from within the socialnetwork from those from outside (assuming caller-id is available orauthentication is used to distinguish members of the social network fromthose who are not members).

Interactive-Voice Response and Premium-Rate telephone services could beused to support such social network functions as event management andsimple profile management.

Three key platform and implementation extensions are provided to extendsocial networks into the mobile environment: Mobile NotificationServices, Data Application Services, and Location-Based Services.

Mobile Notification Services allow the user to optionally andselectively receive alerts to their mobile device. These alerts could bein the form of a Short-Message (SMS), Enhanced SMS (EMS), Multi-MediaMessage (MMS), plain email, a paging message, or other message format.

Data Application Services allow the user(s) to optionally andselectively initiate or receive data communications related to theirsocial network(s). These communications could be via SMS, EMS, MMS,email, WAP, paging, or other wireless application data format.

Location-Based Services allow users to utilise the benefit of theirsocial network taking account of their physical location. The user'slocation may be determined by mobile-phone cellsite location, GPSlocation, manual or menu-driven location selection, or other knownmethods.

An example service which takes advantage of all the above services is asfollows:

User A is at a sports-stadium. He has previously selected on a web sitelink to the searchable database to be notified by SMS when his directfriends or friends of his friends who match a particular predeterminedprofile have their mobile devices active in the same cell-site as himfor a minimum of 20 minutes duration. This time restriction eliminatespeople who are just traveling through the cell-site area.

User A receives an SMS that User B, a friend of his friend User C, is inthe same cell-site. The SMS gives a brief biography of User B.

User A is interested to communicate with User B, but only after checkingwith User C about the person. Because it is time-dependent, User A needsto reach User C directly. In a simple implementation, User A will simplycall or send a text-message to User C. In a sophisticatedimplementation, the system will give User A the option to be placeddirectly into contact via voice or data with User C.

User A reaches User C and User C replies positively to User A's interestin contacting User B. User A then responds to the original alert messagewith that preference. User B then receives a text message asking if UserB would like to meet up with User A, a friend of their mutual friendUser C. If User B responds positively, both User A and User B are sentmessages which give their phone numbers, allowing them to contact eachother. In a sophisticated implementation, they would have the option tobe placed directly into communication.

The present invention relates generally to a means of harnessing thediscriminatory powers of the knowledge, opinions and recommendations ofan entities extended network of contacts in an efficient and systematicmanner and without irritating or alienating members of the network.There are numerous potential implementations for the present inventionof which the examples described in more detail below are by way ofillustration only.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic block diagram of a system for providingconnections between entities, implemented on a computer system (1)according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

The term ‘entity’ or ‘entities’ includes any individual, family,organisation, club, society, company, partnership, religion, or the likethat exists as a particular and discrete unit. However, though for thesake of clarity and convenience the term individual or user entity (asappropriate) is used in the following examples, this does not restrictthe present invention to same.

The computer system (1) includes a host computer in the form of aninternet web server (2), containing a processor (3) connectable to anetwork, in particular the Internet (4), a database (5) accessible oversaid network and a plurality of data input devices, represented by userentity computers (6, 7).

It will be appreciated that by those skilled in the art that theinvention is not necessarily limited to use with the internet (4) andthat a connection to the host computer/web server (2) may be provided bya propriety network (8) enabling access by via text-messaging telephones(9) for example.

The present invention provides system providing one or more userentities with a unique, private personal social network formed fromconnections between contacts being entities connected directly orindirectly to the user.

Thus, the present invention is particularly suited to implementation ina variety of implementations, including, as an example, a relationshipservice to facilitate the introduction of individuals from a user'sunique, personal private network. In dating-type service or systemembodiment, the users would be drawn from friends or friends of friends,or even optionally friends of friend of friends and so forth.

Existing dating services are hampered by the instinctive reluctance ofmany users, or potential user's to engage in relationships withindividuals of whom they have no prior knowledge. Attempts to overcomethis difficulty have been predominately based on systems which recordvarious personal details of the users to provide a basis for filteringpotential partners based on the perceived suitability of the recordedpersonal details.

However, most people's friendships (both platonic and non-platonic) areformed with other individuals with whom they respect, feel comfortablewith, whose company they enjoy, with a compatible outlook, sense ofhumour/beliefs and/or a host of other traits. A friend's friends arethus, widely perceived to be people with a similar outlook/character tothe friend in question. Therefore, even if a friend's friend is unknownto an individual, the existence of the mutual friend between the partiesmitigates much of the above-mentioned concerns.

It will be appreciated that the same principals of using an extendedsocial network of acquaintances as a means of locating a particularindividual can be extended to a plurality of non-romance related areas.As an example, people seeking a particular type of tradesman such as anelectrician, confronted by a potentially random choice from listings ina phone book would often be very willing to choose an electricianrecommended by a friend. The principle is equally applicable across ahuge range of human activities/endeavours and is a fundamental featureof many societies.

The use of the system (1) for romantic purposes illustrated in FIGS. 1-4nevertheless illustrates the operation and characteristics of thepresent inventions.

FIG. 2 show a flow diagram symbolising the implementation of the presentinvention of the system (1) as shown in FIG. 1, wherein an individualhaving an extended personal social network of friends wishes to identifypotential relationships from within said network.

To initiate the process, the individual accesses the host computer/webserver (2) via the Internet (4) using a user computer (6) and isconnected to a web site (10) interface with the service.

In the initial step 100 the individual enters his/her identifyingcharacteristics (11) which preferably includes a means of contacting theindividual, preferably via e-mail and their name. This is recorded bythe systems (1) as part of an individual data record (12) unique to eachperson and stored or updated on the database (5) in step 101.

As discussed above, in the present embodiment, the system (1) isprimarily directed towards a single application-specific system, i.e.,to facilitate romantic relationships between individuals, and thewebsite (10) and associated correspondence/communication between theusers will reflect this single purpose. It is therefore not necessaryfor the user to specifically record the reason/object for using theservice, nor any entity attributes (13) of the individuals stored intheir respective data records (12).

Furthermore, due to the fundamental premise of the system (i.e. joininga personal network of composed of entities/individuals all of whom areknown to each other either directly or by at least one other commonentity/individual), the system can operate if necessary with minimalpersonal information being disclosed by the individual.

However, in alternative embodiments, the system (1), may be configuredto further categorise individuals by entity attributes other than justthe existence of a common friend/contact.

These factors may encompass the full gamut of human interactions witheach other and may include family relations; business colleagues;professional acquaintances; sexual preferences, persuasions, orproclivities; sporting or leisure interests; religious, political,theological or ideological beliefs; academic, scientific, or engineeringdisciplines; humanitarian, social or economic fields and any combinationof same.

Such entity attributes (13) may be recorded in step 101 as part of theindividual's data records (12) on the database (5).

After entering the user's identifying characteristic (11), the userselects one or more chosen individuals from their network of friends instep 102. Each said chosen friend is then notified by an e-mail as shownin the exemplary email illustration represented in FIG. 3. The e-mailnotification (14) effected in step 103, conveys to the recipient a briefoutline of the service (15) together with a request (16) for theirparticipation (step 104).

No individual data records (12) are recorded/stored for recipientschoosing not to participate (step 105) or simply wishing to help theirfriends without their own details being accessible to others.Individuals willing to participate are invited (17) to enter details oftheir own friends in a repetition of step 102. The details of the chosenfriends entered, i.e., the identifying characteristic (11) in thisembodiment are the friend's e-mail address and name. The individualschosen for contact are notified by e-mail in a repetition of step 103.

The whole process (as described above in steps 102-105) of notifyingfriends, recording the details of willing participants as individualuser data records, and contacting the chosen friend's friends and soforth is successively repeated in this manner until the full extendednetwork of friends has been contacted.

Within a typical extended network of friends, there may be singleindividuals seeking relationships, single individuals not activelyseeking a relationship, couples, separated couples, and so forth.Prescribed individuals meeting certain eligibility criteria are invitedto register to obtain searchable access of the database (5).

In the present embodiment (and as shown in FIG. 2), the said eligibilitycriteria for registration is whether that the individual is single (step106).

Individuals meeting this criteria, i.e., they are single (automaticallydetected by said processor (3) reading said data records (12) in thedatabase (5)) are sent an e-mail notification (18) (as shown in FIG. 4)in step 107 to invite them to register for searchable access of thedatabase (5). If user is recorded as not being single in theindividual's data record (12), no invitation for registration issent—step 108.

In the example represented in FIG. 4, the e-mail (18) includes theoption (19) of restricting the information in their own individual datarecord to be available to just ‘friends of friends’ or ‘friends offriends of friends’, i.e. individuals of 2^(nd) or 3^(rd) degree ofcontact separation from the user. It also permits the user to registerthe type of relationship they are interested in via a selection menu(20).

This key feature of the present invention enables a user to applyselective control over the type of interaction with other system usersdepending on their degree of separation from the user.

It will be apparent to one skilled in the art that many variants of thedescribed embodiment are possible without departing from the scope ofthe invention.

In alternative embodiment (not shown), any of the users may input avariety of supplementary personal attributes/information as part of theidentifying characteristics (11) including their including marital orrelationship status (e.g. single, married divorced, separated, de facto,single but uninterested in a relationship at present, and so forth);physical attributes; photographs.

Furthermore, close friends (i.e. direct contacts), as opposed to friendsof friends, may be offered a means of recording a rating, assessment,quantification, qualification, or comment regarding the details storedin the relevant individual data record (12). This can provide a means oflimiting any excessive boasting/hyperbole or reticence/down-playing byan individual and thus provide a more accurate description.

It should understood that the system (1) does not specifically requirethe user entities to contact each other via the internet, rather, itprovides the information required (e.g. a common friend) to contact anindividual with whom the inquirer is known to share a common link.

Even though many user entities may find e-mail to be a convenient meansof contact, there is nothing precluding the use of the telephone, letterwriting, personal contact or any of the ‘conventional’ means alreadyavailable to the public. Such contact details may simply be recorded aspart of the data (12) records and made searchable to prescribed users.

The invention possesses several security features not shared by existing‘dating-services’. Firstly, only individuals sharing a common link (e.g.friendship) are able to obtain access to another individual's personaldetails, i.e. their data record (12). No information is disclosed to the‘outside world’. This greatly reduces the concern and likelihood ofapproaches from ‘crank individuals’, whether perceived or actual.

Secondly, the system does not rely on the user entities inputting largeamounts of personal and potentially private information into a databaseover which they have no access control. Many users may feel lessthreatened by recording the minimal information needed on the database(5), particularly with the reassurance that the information is onlyviewable by friends or friends of friends (or friends of friends offriends).

Further features or embellishments to the basic system include crosschecking the details of new individuals proposed for inclusion on thedatabase to see if they are already present. This prevents peoplereceiving unwanted duplicate e-mail requests (14) to join the service.

Eligible individuals, i.e. single friends meeting a particular searchcriteria may be listed with the along with the path of referring friendsto provides a sense of context and background information. User entitiescan be provided with the option of whether they want their referringfriends to be ‘attached’ to them in this manner.

Registered users may be notified periodically about the number of neweligible individuals included in the service since they last used theservice and/or we last notified.

User entities may customise the format of the e-mail notifications (14)to suit their own tastes. As will be seen in the outline of the service(15) shown in FIG. 3, there are two drop-down boxes to enable the userto customise the characterising description of the service and thesalutation with the minimum of effort.

If a user entity dislikes a particular individual within an extendednetwork of friends, they may deny to access of their individual datadetails during any search of the database (5) conducted by saidparticular individual (or not accept a link to them in the database (5)at all).

Instead of accessing the service via the internet (4), any proprietarynetwork could be employed such as an intranet, wide and local areanetworks; a telephone or pager networks, telephone-based text-messagingor facsimiles; automated mailserver systems; power transmissionnetworks, wireless networks; networks comprised of othertelecommunication links: postal or courier services and the like.

The now widespread text-based phone-messaging feature of telephones,particularly mobile telephones (9) can be utilised as a convenient andattractive means of accessing the service through a proprietary network(8).

Instead of each user instantaneously sending their e-mail requests (14)to the friends chosen for possible inclusion in the service in‘real-time’, these may be grouped together so that an individualreceives a single notification indicating all the friends who haverecommended them.

A further variant of this feature is to periodically notify a userentity of all the other individuals who have registered and who want torefer to the user as their friend.

A ‘referral chain’ of individuals connecting two people provides a meansfor both parties to inquire about each other through any of the partiesin the referral chain. This provides a means of obtaining furtherinformation about an individual before committing to a date/meeting.This essentially mimics the age-old social mechanism whereby friends areused as intermediates or envoys to discover details of potentialmates/partners.

A means of extracting information from an individual's on whichcharacter assessments may be made is possible by means of obtainingresponse from said individual to a range of questions on neutral,mainstream, non-threatening or non-sensitive issues. Such questionscould relate to the user's favourite joke, quote, movie and the like.Said responses may be stored as part of the individual user data recordand may be searchable by said selected users. This avoids theunderstandable reluctance of many potential users to divulge personal,private and/or physical details to the scrutiny of third parties.

The entry of an expanded list of identifying characteristics/entityattributes (11, 13) as referred to above can enable the user entities tocontact other people for non-romantic purposes. This may range fromgolfers seeking like-minded playing partners to lawyers seeking reliableassociates in overseas jurisdictions.

The recommendation of a friend or colleague or even indirectly bysomeone (even if not a direct acquaintance) whose judgement is respectedcan greatly influence people's action and choices. The choice of say, abuilder, dentist or mechanic for example may be influence by acquiredpersonal experiences or by reputation, and/or recommendation. The latteroption is often given preference due to the greater potentialimpartiality and its ability to draw on a wider pool of personalexperiences.

The present invention is readily adaptable to such relationships, and infact, may be utilised in facilitating interaction between parties inalmost any sphere of human activity, provided the parties share a commonconnection (either directly or indirectly) with an entity which isrespected by the said parties.

As discussed, specific applications may be formed from the core featuresset of features of the present invention.

Table 1 below contains an exemplary list of possible applications.

TABLE 1 Application Problem solved Roles Application-specific factorsEmployment Finding high quality Employer, Best employees and or jobs arepeople for jobs at a low Employee, often found through the referralscost Facilitator/link, of friends and colleagues Seeker/candidate,Recruiter Romance Finding a partner Single, The majority of people findtheir Facilitator/Link partner via common friends and colleaguesFlatmate Finding a trustworthy existing flatmates, It is better tochoose someone you (Roomate) and interesting person New flatmates, knowcompared to an finder to live with Facilitator/Link advertisement in thepaper where you do not know the person at all Investment Findinginvestors with Offerer, A large proportion of private opportunitiesskill and desire to invest Investor, equity is placed via personal inparticular areas Consultant, networks and would benefit from aFacilitator/Link more systematic system. An optional additionalrequirement is the person posting the investment opportunity givesspecific approval to each entity in the personal network wanting to viewthe information Recommendation Finding good Reviewer, Friends often ask,“have you seen engine for entertainment Link/facilitator, any goodmovies, read any good movies, books, Entertainment books” and this makesit easy to plays etc seeker see what people think is interesting andworthwhile. Event manager Way for people to Organizer, When organizingsports teams etc organize gathering and participant, it is timeconsuming to call around find people to make up Facilitator/link, a seeif everyone can make it. numbers person with This service may beconfigured to interests cease issuing invitations to the event after adefined number of people had confirmed their attendance. Service and Wayto find good Service/product This provides an alternative to productproduct and services to provider, scanning telephone or traderecommendation buy and those to avoid consumers, directories for productor engine Facilitator/link providers. Users prefer recommendations fromtheir personal network of contacts. Academic Way to keep up to dateAcademics, There are numerous ways collaboration in a research fieldFacilitator/links academics use networks to collaborate on performing,writing up and presenting research. This helps them Contact managerKeeping your contact Friends and This feature could sync yourinformation of friends colleagues local address book with an online andcolleagues up to one. Because you are linked to date your friends viathe social network when they change their contact details it updatesthem online and then updates them on your local computer when they syncthe address books. You will always have their updated contactinformation Business problem Way to find information Question askers,When you have a specific problem solving from business question youoften ask colleagues for the colleagues and share answerers, answer orwho to go to for the information moderators answer. With this serviceyou can sign up to different areas of interest and choose whatdiscussions you want to participate in based on your network ofcolleagues. Finding company Find trusted business Potential Thesepositions are often filled via Directors people for this role indirectors, Boards word of mouth. The present companies seeking directorsinvention would make the process more systematic Spam filtering Problemof receiving Emails that come from your unsolicited emails extendednetwork of contacts could automatically be a higher priority than otheremail. Email that comes from addresses that is not part of any trustednetwork would be further lowered in priority (defined as spam). Carpooling Finding someone to Drivers, travelers Generally people prefer toshare a share a ride with either car with someone they trust than a forcommuting or other total stranger. purposes Generating sales Findingpeople in Sellers, potential Often sales leads are generated leadscompanies through customers, through mutual contacts. mutual contactsthat can Facilitator/links help with the sales process Real EstateFinding good tenants Landlord, tenants, Landlords prefer to have tenantsfor properties Facilitator/links they can trust and they would prefer tohave people that are part of their extended network of contacts.Similarly tenants may prefer a trustworthy landlord Travel OrganizerFind good places to stay Traveler, travel and things to do whensupplier, you travel Facilitator/links Babysitting Finding a goodBabysitter, babysitter caregivers, Facilitator/links House sitting Findsomeone to look House owner, after your house when house sitter, you areaway Facilitator/link Classifieds Buy sell or trade Buyer, seller,property, products, and Facilitator/link services Sharing private Shareyour content with Provider/ Many people create or share peer-to-peerselected degrees of your requester content with others but do notcontent contacts want to use traditional peer-to- peer systems which areopen and subject to abuse.

In a second embodiment, an employment-related application is shown, asillustrated in FIGS. 5-10.

The employment application may operate as a stand-alone application or,as shown in the drawings, be layered onto other applications such as theromance/friendship application described above using the same system(1). The basis for the application is founded on the same principles andcore functions, i.e. using the knowledge, experience, contacts,opinions, or recommendations of an entity's unique, personal privatenetwork of contacts to enhance the effectiveness of their activity ofinterest.

As discussed earlier, finding employment or the right applicant for avacancy can be a frustrating and often futile task. The searchabledatabase system (1) (as shown in FIG. 1) of the present invention maybeutilised to address these difficulties for either task as follows.

In this embodiment, corresponding elements of system (1) are likenumbered. The system is again described with reference to an Internet(4) based platform, though again, the invention need not necessarily beso restricted. The database (5) may be populated in the same manner asdescribed in the first embodiment with data records (12) relating toentities known (directly or indirectly) to each other. Once compiled,such a database (5) may be effectively reused for quite distinctpurposes.

The various entity attributes (13) and/or identifying characteristics(11) (including any supplementary attributes) entered into theindividual data records (12) provide a means to discriminate informationflow between relevant employment entities/individuals. A user accessingthe website (10) to seek potential job vacancies and selecting anappropriate hyperlink from the home page will be brought to the web page(21) shown in FIG. 5.

In addition to pursuing a search for employment vacancies, the user isoffered choices on managing their own unique, personal private networkreferred to in the illustrations as the user's unique, personal networkformed (in the FIG. 5) from their friends and friends of friends. Anumerical status indicator (22) in the upper right of the page (21)keeps the user informed of the total number of contacts in theirpersonal network, also indicating the potential number of recipients ofa search they may conduct.

A further restricted list of options (22) prompts the user to edit theirprofile, i.e. their data record (12), add additional friends to thesystem (1), alter their password and/or their contact details (one oftheir identifying characteristics (11)). Under a further “Jobs: Options”(23) list of options, the user may select from the following job relatedoptions;

-   -   Managing Job postings;    -   Searching Jobs;    -   Manage saved searches/alerts;    -   Edit User job Preferences; and    -   Change User Status.

Access to the expanded list of all the available user options may beaccesses via links entitled “Jobs: Options” (23), “Managing My PersonnelAccount” (24) and/or “My Network of Friends” (25) links.

However, assuming for convenience that a user wishes to search for a joband selects the relevant option, they are taken to the ‘Job Search’ webpage (26) shown in FIG. 6.

At the job search-criteria web page (26), the user is able to specify(via selectable options (27)) search restriction criteria such as jobcategory, geographical region and one or more identifying characteristic(11)/entity attributes (13). In the embodiment shown, the identifyingcharacteristic (11)/entity attribute (13) is the link between the userand the potential recipient, e.g. friend of a friend and/or a friend ofa friend of a friend. Searches may be saved for future use, and previoussearches recalled using their respective icons (27, 28). The exampleshown in FIG. 6, the web page (26) is showing a result summary (30) of asearch conducted on the criteria specified in above options (26).

In this example, a single job vacancy has been found by the search. Thesummary of the job details indicates the vacancy was posted onto thesystem (1) by “Julian, a friend of John (a friend known to the userJane), together with basic job details. If these sufficiently interestthe user, the full vacancy details may be obtained by following the jobtitle hyperlink (31) that leads to the web page (32) shown in FIG. 7.

In addition to giving an expanded description (33) of the job vacancy,the web page (32) also provides an identifying characteristic (11) ofthe individual posting the vacancy, i.e., Julian's e-mail address (33).Also given are the connection(s) (35) between the user and Julian. Theuser thus has the choice of contacting Julian, the vacancy poster, oneof their mutual friends, as identified by the connections (35), orenquire directly to the company advertising the vacancy via a dedicatedlink (36).

The vacancy poster Julian may optionally withheld his e-mail address(34) from being visible to some or all of job seekers.

It will be appreciated that the above search procedure may be easilyadapted to other applications in addition to those of romance oremployment illustrated.

The various entities/individual users of the system (1) may specifytheir interest in particular types of employment (as an identifyingcharacteristic/entity attribute (11, 13)) by updating their profilei.e., their entity data record (12) accordingly. This information may beused by another user as a criterion for inclusion in vacancynotifications.

FIG. 8, shows a web page (37) used for updating a user's profile (12).As this embodiment particularly refers specifically to employment, theprimary selection available to the user is a selection of vacancy typesthey may be interested in via a drop-down box (38). Clearly, alternativeor additional information may also be recorded in further embodiments.

In the case of an individual or company wishing to circulate a vacancyamongst their network of contacts, FIG. 9 shows a further web page (39)for defining the vacancy details. Again, the user is able to restrictthe circulation of the vacancy to friends, friends of friends, oreveryone via appropriate check-boxes (40). The user is provided withvarious optional and required inputs, including a job title/reference(41), job description (42), contact e-mail address (43), geographicallocation of vacancy (44), generic vacancy category (45), vacancy type(e.g. casual, permanent) (46), expected hours of employment (47),vacancy level (48), and maximum, minimum and annual pay (49).

The primary mechanism for new users to join the system (1) is throughcontact with existing members. This may be performed as part of the actof seeking a vacancy, seeking an employee, or as a facilitating/linkindividual who facilitates contact between the relevant parties. FIG. 10shows a further web page enabling a user to send an appropriateinvitation to their friends/colleagues/acquaintances, with acustomisable text message. In FIG. 10, the proposed text (51) is wordedto indicate the user has some vacancies that need filing. However, thetext may be replaced, edited within the user's own e-mail editingprogram if desired by selecting an appropriate link (52), or pasteddirectly into an e-mail or ICQ/Instant messenger service if desired viaa further link (53).

FIGS. 11 and 12 show a graphical representation of the networks referredto throughout the patent whereby the relationships between individualentities (54) are illustrated by interconnecting links (55). It will beapparent that each individual has their own unique private network whichdiffers even from those to whom they are connected, as illustrated inFIG. 11. FIG. 12 shows the different networks associated with eachindividual when the connections include second, third and fourth orderfriendships, as illustrated by the concentric circles enclosing second,third and fourth order connections. (56, 57, 58) respectively.

This job application can include an incentive payment (cash, gift orgift certificate etc) paid to entities that helped link the employer tothe jobseeker. When the facilitator entity notifies the system of thesuccessful linking to claim their payment, the system is indirectlybeing notified that the employer should be invoiced for having found asuccessful candidate via the system. This invoicing double check helpsdetects employers tempted to avoid indicating the recruitment servicewas responsible for finding an employee. This incentive can appear tothe receiver to be initiated by either the system or optionally by theuser who received the successful outcome (in this case, the job seekeror employer).

Another method to identify if an employer has hired a jobseeker via therecruitment service is to send an enquiry email to the new companyaddress using the typical email format given of company employees, egfirstname.lastname@companyname.com and see whether the email is returnedas an invalid address—if the email is successfully delivered and read(if tracking options permit) the individual is likely to be working forthe employer and thus needs to pay for the recruitment service.

Aspects of the present invention have been described by way of exampleonly and it should be appreciated that modifications and additions maybe made thereto without departing from the scope thereof.

1. A method performed by a social network system accessible over a datanetwork with a plurality of data input devices connectable to said datanetwork, said social network system including at least one host computerand a database of entity data records each relating to a correspondinguser entity and containing one or more entity attributes including atleast one identifying characteristic of said corresponding user entity,said method providing a given user entity with a virtual, unique,private, personal, social network (hereinafter ‘social network’) formedfrom connections between contacts, said contacts being other userentities connected directly or indirectly to said first user entity;said method including: communicating an invitation from a first userentity to one or more other user entities selected by said first userentity for inclusion in the first user entity's social network as acontact; recording, in said database, each user entity accepting saidinvitation as being a direct contact directly connected to the firstuser entity by a first degree of separation; determining that for: anysecond user entity directly connected to the first user entity and anythird user entity directly connected to the second user entity but notdirectly connected to the first user entity, the first and third userentities are determined as being indirect contacts, indirectly connectedto each other with a second degree of separation; repeating the abovesteps for a given user entity having a corresponding entity data recordin said database, wherein said given user entity is equivalent to saidfirst user entity in said repeated steps to create, for each said givenuser entity, a corresponding individual, unique, personal, virtualsocial network, thereby collectively forming a plurality of socialnetworks on said social network system, inter-connected by mutuallyconnected contacts; and providing a given user entity with searchableaccess to at least part of the entity data records stored in saiddatabase; providing a given user entity with at least partial control ofprivacy of their individual, unique, personal, virtual social networkwith respect to a user entity seeking access to the given user entity'sdata record by permitting the given user entity to specify: a connectionfactor between the given user entity and said seeking user entity and/orone or more entity attributes of said seeking user entity, required toallow the seeking user entity access to said given user entity's datarecord; permitting a given user entity to take a role of provider orparticipant in a predetermined activity and/or application via said datanetwork, wherein a provider is a user entity providing an item orservice to at least one other user entity; and a participant is a userentity utilising said provider's item or service.
 2. The method asclaimed in claim 1 further including the step of automatically updatingthe entity data record with changes in the identifying characteristicsand/or entity attributes, and any other data associated with and/orinputted by a contact and/or said first user entity and recording saidchanges in the corresponding entity data record associated with saidcontact and/or first user entity.
 3. The method as claimed in claim 2further including the steps of automatically maintaining connectivitybetween said first user entity and said contacts following changes in acontact's or said first user entity's contact details and/or theintegrity of any aspect of a predetermined activity dependant on thecontents of said entity data records of the contacts and/or first userentity involved by virtue of said automatic updating.
 4. The method asclaimed in claim 3 further including the steps of auto-synchronising thecontact details of said contacts with contact details stored in anelectronic or data storage media connected by the first user entity tothe system.
 5. The method as claimed in claim 1 including the furthersteps of allowing a user entity to selectively receive alerts fromMobile Notification Services, said alerts being in the form of aShort-Message (SMS), Enhanced SMS (EMS), Multi-Media Message (MMS),email, a paging message, or other message format sent to a -mobilecommunication device.
 6. The method as claimed in claim 5, furtherincluding the steps of enabling the user entities to optionally andselectively initiate or receive data communications related to theirsocial networks from Data-Application-Services communicating via SMS,EMS, MMS, email, WAP, paging, or other wireless applicationcommunication data format.
 7. The method as claimed in claim 1, furtherincluding the steps of enabling the user entities to augment interactionwith their social network by using Location-Based Services using userentity location data from position location systems including one ormore of: mobile-phone cell-site location, GPS location, manual ormenu-driven location selection, and/or any combination of same.
 8. Themethod as claimed in claim 1, wherein said application is instigatedfrom an entity or organised network external to said social networksystem.
 9. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein a said user entitymay further take a facilitator role, being an entity providing a link orfacilitating interaction between a provider and a participant.
 10. Themethod as claimed in claim 1, wherein the extent to which a participantutilises said provider's item or service is at least partially definableby said participant.
 11. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein thedata network includes the Internet, an intranet; wide and local areanetworks; a telephone or pager networks, telephone-based text-messagingor facsimiles; automated mail-server systems; power transmissionnetworks, wireless networks; networks comprised of othertelecommunication links: postal or courier services.
 12. The method asclaimed in claim 1, wherein said item or service is selectively madeavailable by said provider to other user entities with predeterminedentity attributes, said entity attributes including at least oneidentifying characteristic, information regarding personal details,contact details, factors or interests; friends; relations; schoolalumni; employment factors; business colleagues; professionalacquaintances; sexual preferences, persuasions, or proclivities;sporting interests; entertainment, artistic, creative or leisureinterests; travel interests, commercial, religious, political,theological or ideological belief or opinions; academic, scientific, orengineering disciplines; humanitarian, social, security/military oreconomic fields; and any combination of same.
 13. The method as claimedin claim 1, wherein said applications include consumer decisions,buying, selling, trading, loaning; finding flatmates/roommates, tenants;organising activities and events, recommendations/opinions includingthose related to films, plays, books, employment, services, tradesmen,accommodation, restaurants, comparison and explorations of commoninterests; sharing peer-to-peer personal or business creative work orcontent, including photos, art-work, literature, music; managing a clubor society; locating/supplying/“blacklisting” providers of goods orservices; business or technological advice unsuitable for publication;recruitment, job-seeking; estate agents; venture capital; collaborativeventures; referrals; police/security information gathering/informants;event manager; address book manager; search engines; headhunting; bookmark service; spam filtering; car sharing; sales leads; market entryadvice; real-estate; sharing files; company knowledge management;medical advice; travel organiser, lending/borrowing; house-sitting;baby-sitting; classified advertisements; finding musicians.
 14. Themethod as claimed in claim 1, further comprising Location-Based Servicesenabling the user entity to augment implementations of said applicationsor activity with their social network using user entity location datafrom position location systems including one or more of mobile-phonecell-site location, GPS location, manual or menu-driven locationselection, and/or any combination of same, wherein information generatedby said applications for communication between a user entity and theircontacts is at least partially derived from and/or designated by saidlocation data.
 15. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein saidpredetermined application or activity may be performed with networksexternal to the social network system.
 16. The method as claimed inclaim 1, wherein communication between user entities may be restrictedaccording to the degree of separation between the user entities.
 17. Themethod as claimed in claim 1, wherein a user entity may selectivelycontrol access to its entity attributes to contacts within a selecteddegree of separation from the user entity.
 18. The method as claimed inclaim 17, wherein a said user entity may selectively control access toits contacts within a selected degree of separation from the userentity.
 19. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said predeterminedactivity includes instigating, continuing, terminating or responding toan application, search, and/or communication.
 20. A social networksystem including at least one host computer and a database of entitydata records each relating to a corresponding user entity, said entitydata records containing one or more entity attributes including at leastone identifying characteristic of said corresponding user entity, saidsocial network system accessible over a data network with a plurality ofdata input devices connectable to said data network, said social networksystem providing a given said user entity with a virtual, unique,private, personal, social network (hereinafter ‘social network’) formedfrom connections between contacts, said contacts being other userentities connected directly or indirectly to said first user entity,said social network system: sending an invitation from a first userentity to one or more other user entities selected by said first userentity for inclusion in the first user entity's social network as acontact; recording, in said database, each user entity accepting saidinvitation as being a direct contact directly connected to the firstuser entity by a first degree of separation; determining that for: anysecond user entity directly connected to the first user entity and anythird user entity directly connected to the second user entity but notdirectly connected to the first user entity, the first and third userentities are determined as being indirect contacts, indirectly connectedto each other with a second degree of separation; repeating the abovesteps for a given user entity having a corresponding entity data recordin said database, wherein said given user entity is equivalent to saidfirst user entity in said repeated steps to create, for each said givenuser entity, a corresponding individual, unique, personal, virtualsocial network, thereby collectively forming a plurality of socialnetworks on said system, inter-connected by mutually connected contacts;providing a given user entity with searchable access to at least part ofthe entity data records stored in said database; providing a given userentity with at least partial control of privacy of their unique,personal, virtual social network with respect to a user entity seekingaccess to the given user entity's data record by permitting the givenuser entity to specify: a connection factor between the given userentity and said seeking user entity and/or one or more entity attributesof said seeking user entity, required to allow the seeking user entityaccess to said given user entity's data record, said network controlsystem allowing access to the given user entity's data record accordingto said specified connection factor and/or entity attribute(s);permitting a given user entity to take a role of provider or participantin a predetermined activity and/or application via said data network andspecify said role in said network control system, wherein a provider isa user entity providing an item or service to at least one other userentity; and a participant is a user entity utilising said provider'sitem or service.